Jenrry Mejia exited Thursday’s game prior to the start of the 11th inning due to lower back stiffness. Mejia informed bullpen coach Ricky Bones and pitching coach Dan Warthen that he was stiff, but he was allowed to pitch through it until it became intolerable.

Curtis Granderson was held out of the starting lineup on Thursday due to a tight left calf muscle, but he pinch hit late in the game.

Eric Young, Jr. played left field and went 1-for-4 at the plate in a rehab game for High-A St. Lucie. Young will shift to Double-A Binghamton Friday as he continues to work his way back from a pulled hamstring.

The Phillies are going to take over 4th place. This team is so terrible. No use in watching them anymore. I have been to 1 game this season and that will be it. I rather save my money and go see the Brooklyn Cyclones,.

When the Mets did not sign Reyes and Byrd you knew we were in trouble, it was the starting of Wilpon's strategy of not paying out a big payroll and right now he is considering dropping a 80 ml. to low 70's as we speak. I would not be surprised that he thinks the boys we have now are not worth 80ml. payroll.

No team sets players up to fail like the Mets. d'Arnaud was going to be the next Piazza, Flores reminded people of Miguel Cabrera. It's not to say that these kids might not become decent major leaguers one day, it's just grossly unfair to somehow mislead the fan base into believing that they will somehow compensate for the organizations unwillingness or inability to invest in established major league stars. We were lead to believe that Flores was somehow ahead of where he is in his development. He and d'Arnaud should have spent a year or two as anonymous understudies to established veterans, instead they were portrayed as immediate answers who are now discredited failures in the eyes of a lot of fans. Not their fault necessarily, they were hung out to dry by arguably the worst ownership in baseball.

It is amazing that once again the Mets lineup consists of 2 guys (maybe 3) who would start for any other major league team. SS, 1st, C, LF, CF and possible RF are being manned by backups at best and there is no help on the horizon. No potential starters in the minors. Nothing. I bet a lot of teams would trade starting pitching with the Mets in a second. Pitching wins when you have a major league lineup. I don't like Terry and have no issue with them firing him but you can't win with 2 MLB bats in the lineup.

Niese again pitched extremely well yesterday...he knew he was in for a no-decision; just like Keith said, reminds him when Tom Terrific pitched...he'd win if he threw a shutout, other than that it was a no-decision.

Its a dead heat with us and the Phillies.....and there were those among us who looked at the Philles, with their troubled salaries and age and underestimated the Mets chances to beat them....but here we are....in a virtual DEADLOCK....we can do it, we can prove it to the Philles.....WE ARE THE WORST and we'll prove it out!

I don't want to lose WRIGHT, but if we are able to get a good OF with pop for him I'd do it and put FLORES or MURPHY in the hot corner; the METS rid themselves of REYES, they could do the same with WRIGHT. This team won't compete any time soon. Our young pitching are already looking ahead to free agency, I bet my two homes, 5 cars that HARVEY has already thought about life after QUEENS.

@barbarossa No, the Wilpons didn't think they could lower payroll, lose games and still have attendance go up.

Here's what they thought. They could become the Oakland A's of the National Leauge. Lower payroll, bring in value players, trade expensive aging stars for young developing talent. Build a winner like the A's have. The Mets win, their attendance goes up. They make make money.

It hasn't worked. Many people focus on the Wilpons, many on Alderson, many on both. I would mostly criticize Alderson. The GMs job is to build a winner in 5 years. If it hasn't happened he should be replaced and his underlings should be replaced.

I don't find as much fault with the Wilpons. I know most of the posters on this blog hate them because they won't spend money, but it is possible to win without spending like the Yankees, Dodgers and Angels. So I don't fault them for their strategy per se. But the man they chose to implement the strategy has failed. His biggest moves have not panned out. Beltran for Wheeler. I like Wheeler but he's not Harvey so fans see him as a failure. d'Arnaud and Noah for Dickey. d'Arnaud has been a bust and Noah is still developing.

Wilpons aren't going anywhere people. And their strategy isn't going to change. The best you can hope for is that they fire Alderson and company and find the next Billy Beane to implement their strategy.

@Macacawitz Absurd post. Every team has prospects that don't pan out. Every single team.

Who are these "people" who thought Flores was the next Cabrera? Someone in the Mets organization? Can you quote person, time and place? d'Arnaud was ranked as a top prospect by scouting evaluations in baseball in general not specifically the Mets. With a little work you could find failed prospects in every organization, but it's easier to just rant against the Mets.

The Mets stink right now and it's easy to kick them. But to be fair you have to compare them with other organizations not in a vacuum.

@Bob Burket understand, but when you put a kid in once in a blue moon, it's hard to get going. If FLORES was playing consistently he would have driven in that run. Look at what's happened to BROWN and SOUP...since they don't play they have lost their swagger.

@Bob Burket Recker did get hosed, those weren't strikes. But had Flores done what pretty much anyone else (besides a Met) could do, that is hit a lousy flyball, then Recker never would have been in that position to begin with.

@nncyel@Macacawitz Look Jeff, don't make me have to take you apart with the laundry list of players the Mets have oversold over the years, either through direct quote, whisper or innuendo, with innuendo being the primary way of manipulating the fan base. No I'm not going to waste my time finding you a quote. Saw it somewhere, don't give a damn where, bottom line is it's what management wanted me to believe. Look Jeff, if you are somehow connected to the Mets I want you to look out at that vast display of empty seats in that cavernous monstrosity of a ballpark. As fans all we're fed is how good it's going to be, how our farm system is going to produce all these great players, how it's foolish to sign free agents. We're told to just wait until so and so gets here, how he's going to be the game changer. If you don't work for the Mets then you're little more than an apologist for a sham organization.

@Richard Alicea@Bob Burket Flores should be playing everyday if he is up here but Collins continues to play Tejada. I can only hope changes are made soon with management since the players are probably here to stay.

@Macacawitz@nncyel Calling me Jeff Wilpon. That's funny. How long did it take you to come up with that?

Perhaps you dreamed that someone in the Mets organization claimed that Flores was going to be the next Miguel Cabrera. Your anger just makes you look foolish.

I've been a fan since '68. Seen lots of bad Mets teams and a couple of good ones. You can react to your baseball team losing by crying, by laughing or by getting really pissed off. I don't see the point of getting really pissed off like you and so many other posters on this blog. There's enough things in the world to get pissed off about - a losing baseball team isn't one of them.

No I'm not an apologist. I see statements like your "No team sets players up to fail like the Mets" and I react to its inaccuracy. I admitted the Mets stink right now - that's hardly being an apologist. But I'll contest inaccurate statements - that's not being a Mets apologist that's me calling you out on your exaggerations.

@Macacawitz@nncyel That article was written when the kid was 19 and starts off: To say that Wilmer Flores can become the next Miguel Cabrera would be pretty foolish. Cabrera is a Hall of Fame type talent and perennial All-Star, so comparing anyone to him is very risky. The Flores/Cabrera comparisons have come mostly from the fact that they are both from Venezuela, both are 6’3″, and both started their minor league careers at SS.

That's not exactly promoting him as the next Cabrera is it? And if the Mets organization had repeated these comparisons over the ensuing years you might have a case, but I don't recall it.

It finishes with:

"Miguel Cabrera developed Hall of Fame type power and overall hitting ability, which is likely never to be achieved by his young country mate".

Perhaps you took a quick look at the article and concluded the Mets are promoting him as the next Cabrera. A careful reading of the article though seems to me to quash that idea. The article pretty clearly states he's not going to be. Hard to criticize the Mets for telling fans he's not going to be the next Cabrera despite some similarities in their history and temptations by fans to draw that conclusion. I'd say the problem is more with fans placing expectations on players not the Mets organization.

@nncyel @Macacawitz You can contort yourself all you want. You asked for a reference and I gave you one. If they didn't want to draw comparisons they shouldn't have put his name in the headline to begin with. They can backtrack and qualify all they want but it's a marketing tactic the Mets have done throughout their history to oversell suspects. Once the headline gets into the echo chamber it resonates, by design. Go ahead, google "Wilmer Flores Miguel Cabrera" and see how many times it's repeated. It's done by design and it's slimy.